The free market supports diversity

Criticizing JC Penney for hiring lesbian comedian Ellen DeGeneres to be a company spokeswomen is “a witch hunt,” says Bill O’Reilly in a video clip on Huffington Post. “A conservative group has no right asking a private company to fire an American citizen based upon her lifestyle,” he says.

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As a gay man in his early 50′s, I never thought I would live to see the day that voices of intolerance and hate would be increasingly marginalized in this country. Of course I never thought I would live to see the day that I would wholeheartedly agree with Bill O’Reilly. The level of hate demonstrated by groups like Million Moms, Alliance Defense Fund, Family Research Council, National Organization for Marriage and Westboro Baptist Church, to name a few, has become irrelevant. Their arguments for discrimination against GLBT people are stupid and a fast growing majority of Americans see it for what it is. “Because the bible says so”, is not a defensible reason to attempt to marginalize millions of GLBT Americans. Thank you JC Penny, Bill O’Reilly and especially Ellen for taking a principled stand and not hiding who you are.

Egad! The Times Union making a positive reference to “Free Markets”?! Are you all Austrian economists now?!

All joking aside this is certainly an interesting issue, and it demonstrates freedom on ALL sides. ANY individual or group has the natural right to express their disagreements with how a private (or even publicly-held) company does business. So the “Million Moms” or whoever used their right to free speech to express derision. They also used their right to assemble to speak out en masse.

So Billy O’Reilly is indeed WRONG when he says “A conservative group has no right asking a private company to fire an American citizen based upon her lifestyle.” They have every right to express their opinion and attempt to turn that opinion into action. Has O’Reilly never heard of the civil rights movement of the 1950s and 1960s? It was the EXACT same principle!

That being said, J.C. Penney was ALSO well within their rights to run their business the way they want to. They should be able to hire and fire spokespeople at will (all contract law aside). Money talks and if they thought having Ellen as their representative would’ve cost them money it would’ve been understandable if they dropped her. If they place a higher price on integrity than revenue, then that’s their choice.

Vote with your wallet. If you want to give J.C. Penney your mom just to spite the anti-Ellen people, then by all means do that too. So if you don’t like the fact Ellen shills for J.C. Penney, then shop somewhere else – it is, as the headline says, a free market after all.

A free market promotes the employment of those who are expected to make their employers money –nothing more. If the TU thought that more people would buy the paper with a column by someone who thought a libertine was someone who hold belief in a philosophy of limited government they would search me out and hire me without any reference to my genetic background.

As to Ann’s comment about Ellen’s sexuality is not anyone’s business, by making her sexuality public she gave the rest of us the right to react to it.